Venezuelans living abroad want to vote for president this year but can't meet absentee requirements

FILE - Venezuelans, who support opposition leader Mara Corina Machado, sing their native country's national anthem during a protest demanding free and fair elections in Venezuela's upcoming election, in Bolivar Square in Bogota, Colombia, April 6, 2024. Of the millions of Venezuelans who have fanned out around the world, including those who migrated before the economic crisis, only about 107,000 are registered to vote outside the South American country.

Venezuelan law contemplates absentee voting, allowing citizens to vote at embassies and consulates. Interested voters must be properly registered with their foreign address and cannot be living in their host country illegally or seeking refugee or asylum status there. Maria Cordova and her family, who moved to Mexico 18 years ago, participated in the October presidential primary for the opposition faction backed by the United States. That election was organized by a commission independent of Venezuela's ruling party-loyal National Electoral Council. The commission allowed interested voters like Cordova to register to vote online, eventually signing up more than 200,000 people around the world.

Polling suggests that Venezuelans overwhelmingly want to go to the polls and would trounce Maduro if given the chance. Among the issues both sides were expected to work on was updating the country’s voting rolls. But this and other changes did not materialize after Maduro's government began to defy the spirit, if not necessarily the letter, of the agreement, including by

Most people who have left Venezuela over the past decade settled in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Colombia is home to the largest contingent of them, with more than 2.8 million living across the country.

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